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Office of Construction & Facilities Management

Design Guides (PG-18-12)

If you have questions about, or have difficulty accessing the content of the PDF files, please e-mail Facilities Standards Service at til@va.gov, or contact Gary M. Fischer, Architect at 202-632-4898.

NOTICE: VA Design Guides are in a continual process of refinement/update and new Design Guides are being developed. Update will be incremental; completed Guides will be posted on this site and noted as current. As much information in these Guides is dated, it is recommended that they be used with caution to assure that current standards of the health care industry are addressed in meeting VA’s needs. A planning/design consultant may be helpful in confirming the validity of project specific data.

Design Guides are intended to help speed the design process, control cost, avoid errors and omissions, and get value for dollars spent. Design guides are developed in partnership with the using service and are benchmarked with similar private sector guides. They are to be applied flexibly, not as rigid standards.

Effective April 4, 2014, PG-18-12 Research Laboratory Design Guide is rescinded and shall not be utilized for VA design projects. The Research Design Guide is currently under revision. Research Laboratory projects requiring interim guidance should refer to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Design Requirements Manual dated May 9, 2013. Note: PG-18-9 Space Planning Criteria Chapter 278, and PG-18-5 Equipment Guide List shall continue to be utilized for guidance.